The Parliamentary Select Committee on Education and the National Road Safety Authority have shown interest in the latest invention by students of the Koforidua Technical University, who have manufactured and successfully installed a traffic light with an in-built camera on campus to boost security.
The traffic light, which was built locally and installed on campus by the mechatronic, cybersecurity, and computer science department, is to help gather intelligence and improve security on campus.
The Member of Parliament for New Juaben North, Nana Adjei Boateng, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, was tasked by the committee to visit the institution and find out how the innovation works shortly after a delegation from the National Road Safety Authority inspected the project to see how effective the two institutions can collaborate.
The Head of Department for Computer Science of the university, Boakye Agyemang, Who spoke to Citi News after the visit by the MP and the NRSA, said the institutions will soon collaborate.
“Following the publication of the invention on Citi FM and Citi TV, I think that it is receiving much attention in the public domain, and we are very happy that at least some stakeholders have taken the necessary steps to come and have a look at it based on the stories that are in the media, specifically the National Road Safety Commission. They have sent their men to come and ascertain the truth, and they have scheduled a meeting sometime this week with KTU to find the best way forward with regard to this invention”.
“The Parliamentary Select Committee on Education also sent a member to also come and verify, so I think that government and the public are doing well to recognize what we are doing as a technical university. The member of the Select Committee on Education Hon. Adjei Boateng, who came here was very happy, and he assured us that he was going to inform the committee, the chairman, and the other members so that they can also come, and then we will do a full demonstration on the operation of the artificial intelligence traffic light that we have developed here in KTU”.
Mr. Boakye Agyemang then called on the government, other stakeholders, and private investors to come on board and invest.
“We are calling on the government and all other stakeholders to come on board and support us, this is a great research invention, and I think that the investment into this will yield the required results and improve the country’s security systems”.
KTU to scale up traffic with camera in Koforidua township
Richard Agboyi, a computer laboratory technician with the university’s ICT directorate also indicated that the ultimate aim of the project in the short-term is to install and cover the New Juaben North and South Municipalities with the traffic to help security agencies, DVLA, and NRSA tackle crime.
“The main aim of this project is to cover the entire campus and cover the main street in terms of leaving the AI to capture the movement of cars on the street that is right in front of the school. That is the main aim of the project, and if that is achieved, we can then move on to the district, that is the New Juaben Municipality to be able to capture cars, especially when it comes to cars that are speeding”.
“When they get to certain limits, the camera should be able to capture them using the AI technology, and then when it captures them, the Road Safety can then find those drivers responsible for the speeding. If there is also an incident, we can get the real-time video and also pictures of all the scenes that occurred, and the security agencies can then use it to prosecute the offenders”.